Thursday, March 1, 2012

Monkees Singer Davy Jones Dead at 66

The teen idol, along with fellow band mates,
The Monkees, not only left an indelible mark on pop culture, but forged a path
(and an audience) for future manufactured bands. Whether it was on the Broadway
stage or on TV screens, the Brit icon's smile, voice and boyish charm melted
hearts.

David Thomas "Davy" Jones (30 December 1945 – 29
February 2012) was an English
singer-songwriter and actor best known as a member of The Monkees.

Davy Jones was born at 20 Leamington Street, Openshaw, Manchester, Lancashire, England. Aged 11 he began his acting career, appearing on the British
television soap opera Coronation
Street, which was produced
at Granada Studios by Granada Television in Manchester. In 1961
Jones played Ena Sharples' grandson, Colin Lomax, the year Coronation Street was first broadcast. He also appeared in the BBC police series
Z-Cars. However, after the death of his mother from emphysema when he was 14
years old, he left acting and trained as a jockey with Basil Foster.

Monkees

From 1965 to 1971, Jones was a member of The
Monkees, a pop-rock group formed expressly for a television show of the same
name. With Screen Gems producing the series, Jones was shortlisted for
auditions, as he was the only Monkee who was signed to a deal with the studio,
but still had to meet producers Bob Rafelson's and Bert Schneider's standards.
Jones sang lead vocals on many of the Monkees' recordings, including "I
Wanna Be Free" and "Daydream Believer". Jones met Laramy Smith
in 1967, introduced by Eirik Wangberg (then a producer and co-owner of Sound
Records), and they co-produced The Children, an Austin, Texas group Jones
discovered while on tour with the Monkees. A single was released on Laramie
Records entitled "Picture Me", which reached Billboard at number 2
with a bullet.

After the television series went off the
air, The Monkees disbanded. However, Jones continued to perform solo, while
later joining with fellow Monkee Micky Dolenz and songwriters Tommy Boyce and
Bobby Hart as a short-lived group called Dolenz, Jones, Boyce & Hart. He
also toured throughout the years with other members as various incarnations of
the Monkees.

In February 2011, Jones mentioned rumours
of another Monkees reunion. "There's even talk of putting the Monkees back
together again in the next year or so for a U.S. and UK
tour," he told Disney's BackstagePass newsletter. "You're always hearing all those great songs on
the radio, in commercials, movies, almost everywhere." The tour came to
fruition entitled, "An Evening with The Monkees: The 45th Anniversary
Tour."

Death

The Martin County Sheriff's Office stated
that Jones had complained of breathing difficulties on the morning of 29 February 2012, in Indiantown, Florida, and had been transported to MartinMemorialSouthHospital in
Stuart, where he was pronounced dead. Jones is survived by his widow, Jessica,
and four daughters.

The outpouring of grief in response to
Jones' death was immediate and profound. Jones' Monkees bandmates led the
tributes following his death; guitarist Mike Nesmith stated that Jones'
"spirit and soul live well in my heart among all the lovely people",
bassist Peter Tork said, "Adios to the Manchester Cowboy", and
speaking to CNN, drummer/singer Micky Dolenz said, "He was the brother I
never had and this leaves a gigantic hole in my heart".

Yahoo! Music, who named Jones the #1 teen
idol of all time in 2008, commented that Jones' death "hit so many people
so hard" because "Monkees nostalgia cuts across generations: from the
people who discovered the band during their original 1960s run; to the kids who
came of age watching 1970s reruns; to the twenty- and thirtysomethings who
discovered the Monkees when MTV (a network that ironically owes so much to the
Monkees' influence) began airing old episodes in 1986."

When commenting on Jones' death, Time
magazine contributor James Poniewozik praised the classic sitcom, and Jones in
particular, saying "even if the show never meant to be more than
entertainment and a hit-single generator, we shouldn’t sell The Monkees short.
It was far better television than it had to be; during an era of formulaic
domestic sitcoms and wacky comedies, it was a stylistically ambitious show,
with a distinctive visual style, absurdist sense of humor and unusual story
structure. Whatever Jones and The Monkees were meant to be, they became
creative artists in their own right, and Jones' chipper Brit-pop presence was a
big reason they were able to produce work that was commercial, wholesome and
yet impressively weird."